Language | BILINGUAL May 21, 2018
To know Japan, its people and its story, know its grub
by Kaori Shoji
Food in Japan is hardwired to emotion, personal identity and memory in a way that is often baffling to Westerners.
Language | BILINGUAL May 14, 2018
Whose line is it anyway? Tips for deciphering dialogue in Japanese fiction
by Daniel Morales
Dialogue in Japanese fiction has its own set of rules, and if you're not paying close attention, you may have trouble understanding who is saying what to whom.
Language | BILINGUAL Apr 23, 2018
What would you pay to live in Minato Ward?
by Kaori Shoji
It was in 2001 when my friend, Chikako Sakamoto, paid ¥9.8 million for a six-tatami-mat apartment in Tokyo's central Minato Ward. The apartment was inside a 長期滞在者用 (chōki taizaisha-yō, long term resident's) wing of an old hotel in Roppongi, with a very low ceiling ...
Language | BILINGUAL Apr 16, 2018
OK Google, auto-fill the gaps in my Japanese
by Daniel Morales
If you are stuck for what to say in Japanese, Google search — and in particular, its auto-fill function — can be your friend.
Language | BILINGUAL Apr 9, 2018
Musical vocab in Japanese can be a maddeningly multilingual minefield
by Peter Backhaus
A basic grounding in German, English, Italian and Heian Period poetry could be useful for those interested in reading and talking about the mechanics of music in Japan.
Language | BILINGUAL Apr 2, 2018
A company freshman's sharp learning curve
by Mark Schreiber
The first Monday in April — April 2 this year — sees tens of thousands of 生き生きして元気な新入社員 (ikiiki shite genki na shinnyū shain, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed newly hired company employees) — also referred to as フレシュマン (fureshuman, freshmen) — decked out in their new ...
Language | BILINGUAL Mar 26, 2018
Japanese women find strength in Me Too
by Kaori Shoji
The Me Too movement has arrived in Japan at last, and more Japanese women are opening up about issues surrounding sexual harassment.
Language | BILINGUAL Mar 19, 2018
In written Japanese, it's punctuation, but not as we know it
by Peter Backhaus
Needless to say, Japanese has its own set of punctuation marks, and a number of special rules regarding their usage.
Language | BILINGUAL Mar 12, 2018
Cheat your way to better Japanese with walkthrough video game guides
by Daniel Morales
Learners of Japanese, why not try offsetting the guilt of cheating at video games by changing your device's settings to Nihongo and checking Japanese online walkthrough guides?
Language | BILINGUAL Mar 5, 2018
Putting Japan's Olympic success into words
by Yukari Tanaka
Team Japan amassed 13 medals in Pyeongchang, its best ever Winter Games medal haul.
Language | BILINGUAL Feb 26, 2018
by Mark Schreiber
One way to acquire more kanji is to organize them into a relational database. To show how this works, let's look at some of the many characters using the hand radical.
Language | BILINGUAL Feb 12, 2018
A salaryman is left blinking in the dust left by the #MeToo charge
by Kaori Shoji
One Japanese salaryman laments the changes the #MeToo movement has had on relationships between men and women in his workplace.